Game Dev Story
Game Dev Story was Kairosoft's first game. In it, you run a game company and create games with the attributes Fun, Creativity, Graphics, and Sound. Many other factors also affect how popular a game is, how well it sells, how large your fan base is, and whether your game can have a sequel. While your primary goal is to make great games, there are many aspect to work on to make this possible, such as training staff, building a console, and unlocking new genres and types. Development Making a Game Games are what make you money and let the game progress. There are many factors in how popular it will be, such as consoles, employees, and luck. If a game is really good it could potentially have a sequel. Sequels Games that enter the Hall of Fame are eligible for sequels (a game enters the Hall of Fame when its total critic score is 32 or higher). To make a sequel, enter the Sequel screen and choose the Platform (a sequel does not have to be developed on the same platform as the original), the game you wish to create a sequel of, and the development method. At that point, the sequel will be made in the same way as any other game. The advantage of making sequels is that they start out with extra levels in Fun, Originality, Graphics, and Sound. However, if a sequel does not make the Hall of Fame on its own, no more sequels can be made in that franchise. Contracts In addition to making games, your company can also fulfill contracts for others. Contracts are available from the same menu through which you make new projects and are available from the start of the game. Contracts are useful in the beginning phases of the game as a relatively easy way to generate money and develop research points. During the mid- and end-game, contracts generally do not pay enough to be worth the effort. While the particular story behind each contract is different (translate a game into a new language, develop a new game engine, complete special effects for a movie, and so forth), the mechanics of each contract are identical. All contracts include: #The amount of money to be paid upon completion of the contract (from $100K to, on rare occasions, over $1,000K). #The amount of time in which the contract should be completed (usually between 6-13 weeks). #The various categories the contract involves (Fun, Originality, Graphics, and Sound). Every contract will involve two of these categories, though which categories how much of each category is required will differ from contract to contract. More difficult contracts will pay more, but will require the production of higher levels in each category over shorter periods of time. Failure to fulfill a contract involves loss of the fee and a loss of reputation for your company. Consoles Staff There are many employees you can choose from, some that need to be unlocked, some only obtainable from different Hiring Methods, and each with a pun in their name. All employees have different careers inside the company. Training Methods There are many training methods that your employees can use, with more and more being unlocked as you progress through the game. The training methods do stop having effect after awhile, so keep this in mind. Items Items are obtained from Pumpkin Products, who appears every M5 W2 (first time on Year 2). Prices of all items go up as you upgrade to a new office. For every item you buy, the cost of the others goes up (this is not true for Dead Bull or Career Change Manual). Moving Seats Switching your employee's seating arrangements is primarily for aesthetic or entertainment purposes. However, you can gain a small performance increase by putting employees with smaller Power bars closer to the door so that it will take them less time to walk between their chair and door when they leave for home. Advertising Advertising will increase your number of fans and the Hype for any game currently in development. More expensive ads will increase fans and hype by larger amounts. If you use the same type of advertisement too often, however, it cease to have any impact on number of fans. Research Data Research Data points are gained by employees while both doing work and sitting idle. You are also granted research points upon completion of a contract, with the amount varying by the difficulty of the contract. Research Data is very important and can be used for leveling up employees (up to level 5, with progressively more points being used every time) and performing Boosts. Using a Boost item requires differing amounts of data depending on how many Boosts have been used. Boosts requested by an employee, however, allow you to use more Research Data in order to increase the change up success (up to 80%). The amount of data needed for certain percentages of success depends on the employee's skills (more skills need less research points). An easy method to quickly gain Research Data points later on in the game once you have a very fast team is to continually complete contracts that have high point requirements. You are granted a bulk of Research Data points upon completing the contract, and because you should be able to complete even the most complex contracts quickly (within a couple of weeks), this is a very effective way to gain masses of Research Data. Office Upgrades After every upgrade, you unlock new methods of training, Advertizing, and hiring methods, as well as 2 more seats. *'First Upgrade:' Upgrade event raised first time after developing one game and obtaining $1,000.0K after year 3 , and cost to upgrade is $600.0K. *'Second Upgrade:' Upgrade event raised first time after obtaining $ 3,500.0K after year 10 or get the Game of the Year Award and the cost to upgrade is $2,500.0K. Events ;Fan letters Letters can be both good or bad events. If a game that was published had a positive score a person will send a letter in increase the popularity in the age group and gender according to the top of the letter. The opposite effect will occur in a decrease in popularity among the age group and gender ;Paying Staff Staff are paid annually at the start of March. At that point, the combined salaries of all staff members will be deducted from the company's funds. The one exception is at the end of the first year; all salaries for the first year are covered by the "government" in an effort to encourage game development. If a company does not have enough money to cover payroll, the company can dip into a one time $150K emergency fund. If the $150K is insufficient, or if the company fails to cover payroll again, consequences can include cancellation of projects and so on. ;Pumpkin Products He appears annually on M5 W2 to sell you items starting the 2nd year. ;Development Events These include such things as magazine reviews. ;Global Game Awards The Global Game Awards is an annual show in Game Dev Story every December. Your company first enters the Global Game Awards when a game has got into the Hall of Fame, or a total review score of 32 or more. After that, even if no other game produced has a review score of 32 or over, your company's games will still be entered to the Global Game Awards to compete against those of rival companies. To have a chance of getting Game of the Year Award, a game must have a total review score of 36 or more. Even a review of 40 does not ensure winning this award. ;Gamedex Gamedex is an annual show in Game Dev Story that allows your company to gain popularity through different fan bases or a game to gain hype for a current game either in development or released. The event is at the start of every July (M7 W1). The first Gamedex appears after you upgrade your office for the first time. Having a booth a game Dex can increase the popularity of your game company. Gamedex is probably parodying the Electronics Entertainment Expo or E3 as the expo also happens every July. Endgame Trivia *The Space and Jumprope types are inaccessible in game as there is an unused training method, Retreat. They would have been unlocked by the designer and the coder by going to the Retreat. This can be seen in the game's code. *If you make a racing game it is possible to receive a fan letter, where the writer of the letter, a Race car driver, says "Thanks to you, I was able to come in 16th in the recent Chimpan Island Race.", which is a race in Grand Prix Story. *Gamedex also appears in Venture Towns as a Dev. Project. Gallery ゲーム発展国++.png|Japanese logo art.